We're contemplating staying open until 11 on fri and sat this year instead of 10.... Is it worth it? We see a significant drop off after 945, maybe because people KNOW we're open only until 10? Idk. This is a shot in the dark, and things are going to print next week...

We don't cap our ticket sales. Lines suck but a big one only makes you loo all that better! So I've always only listed a time for the ticket booth to close, and after that we just finish off whoever is already in line.

Wow Im a bit shocked at that. I know a lot of haunts in the dallas market close at 10 on sundays but Fridays and saturdays most are open till midnight. Im happy to be going from a haunt park that closed at 1:30am (that was an hour drive away) to a haunt that closes at midnight that is 20 min away.
I highly reccomend staying open till 11.

Very interesting topic... in fact make sure you buy your subscription RIGHT NOW at www.hauntedhousemagazine.com because this magazine went to the printers today. Its going to be the best one we've done so far!!! The magazine is 64 full color pages jammed packed with awesome content! Now why did I bring that up... well because I wrote my entire letter from the editor about this EXACT SUBJECT!!!

The article was about when to open, when to close and how many days you should be open. Here is the shorter version for the sake of this topic...

On weekends we are open until 12am in September and 12:30 in October... as the season gets closer we open sooner. If thru put is an issue at your house you don't want to limit the hours you are open you want to expand them. However I've found the later you stay open the nutty the people are more in force. We use to list open until 1am but now its 12:30.

At the end of the day its really simple closing at 11am on a busy weekend in October doesn't sound like a great idea to me. Larry

We advertise last ticket sales as 10:30. We are out in the country but major interstate interchange one mile away. If cars are pulling in we extend based on weather and time of season. That wraps us up by 11:30 - midnight usually. And by then the actors are getting wore out anyway. And some nights I jump on a combine and harvest long into the morning. If I wasn't harvesting corn and beans and timeclock hitting 110 hours a week already for me heck yes I would extend hours. But over a dozen years we are getting crowds to come early season more. We WORK the lines getting people to realise how much better it will be next year to come earlier in the season and miss the long lines...and hit another haunt instead of standing in line so long.

The haunt I help at advertises open till midnight. If anyone shows up before the clock strikes 12, they can buy a ticket. I don't mind, but the hour between 11 and 12 always seems to be slow... except for the final weekend. Sometime we find ourselves sitting around praying for someone to show up. You can almost always figure on a car pulling up right at the last minute.